Uganda Taps Citibank to Raise $3 Billion for Stalled Railway Project

The East African nation revives long-delayed Standard Gauge Railway plan, turns to global lenders after failed China financing push, with talks under way with World Bank to unlock funding

Uganda has appointed Citibank to help raise $3.19 billion for its planned Standard Gauge Railway project, the government said on Thursday, as it seeks to revive a long-delayed infrastructure plan.

In a post on X, Uganda’s finance ministry said the government is “in talks with the World Bank to support the project.”

Earlier this month, the Washington-based lender confirmed that it was considering “an array of potential financing options” for the railway, which is seen as critical to improving regional trade links.

A Ugandan delegation in Washington for the Spring Meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank met officials from Citibank led by Richard Hodder, the bank’s managing director and global head of export and agency finance, “to discuss progress made in mobilising the required financing for the SGR project,” the ministry said.

The railway, a 272-kilometer line linking Kampala to Malaba on the Kenyan border, is intended to connect landlocked Uganda to Kenya’s rail network and onward to the Indian Ocean port of Mombasa, easing the movement of goods and lowering transport costs.

Uganda has struggled for years to secure financing for the project. After unsuccessful attempts to obtain funding from Beijing, the government in 2024 awarded construction to the Turkish firm Yapi Merkezi.

Preliminary work has begun with limited government funding, but full construction has yet to start, pending the mobilization of external financing.

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